MOO 28: The Trouble with Kids These Days
by Amanita Jackson
Summary: Month O' Oneshots 28! ViktorCedric! In the library! Slightly sad but a titchy bit of fluff thrown in! No death yet! Yay! Read the thing already!


A/N: ZOMG. This pairing is awesome. I am sorry that this is not terribly good but I am still getting a feel for the pairing. Next few will be better. Some genius wrote the first pairing for these boys on here, and I read it. Good lord, why did no one think of this before? Expect many more of these to come. Well, at least one or two. I am slowly slogging through my X-men fic, it's a John/Bobby. Some Outsiders stuff is in the works too. I have a free day today so I'm getting some stuff up. In a few hours I'm going to dig up my TROY DVD and you'll get a few more chapters of that. Stay tuned.

Pairing: Viktor/Cedric, Viktor/Hermione, Cedric/Cho, Cedric/Harry.

MOO: #28

Dedication: To my happily married cousin and his new wife. May they be free from parental interference for as long as humanly possible. (Read: possibly the next week, at most. Both future grandmothers are of the interfering, 'okay in nine months I expect some grankids, what do you mean you're waiting?' type.)

Disclaimer: I own neither the characters nor the idea for the pairing, I am simply trying this out. Song is Sound of Settling by Death Cab for Cutie, a totally awesome, awesome band.

Warning: Slight angst but hopefully no whining...mentions of het, mentions of slash, you know the drill

* * *

Viktor Krum was the darling boy of Bulgaria, everyone's favourite Quidditch player. Until Harry Potter came along. Harry Potter out-flew Viktor every time. 

Viktor Krum was the darling boy of Durmstrang, everyone's favourite school-age hero. Until Harry Potter came along. Harry Potter out-drama'd Viktor every time.

Viktor Krum was the darling boy of Cedric Diggory, Cedric's favourite everything. Until Harry Potter came along. Harry Potter out-paced Viktor every time.

Viktor Krum wanted Cedric Diggory. Cedric Diggory wanted Viktor Krum. Viktor worked up the courage to ask Cedric, another boy, another _Champion_, to the Ball. Or even out. Or even just give him a kiss, a touch, a look, something, anything, everything. But Harry Potter got there first.

Then Cedric wasn't there at all.

**I've got a hunger  
Twisting my stomach into knots  
That my tongue was tied off **

My brain's repeating  
"If you've got an impulse let it out"  
But they never make it past my mouth.

Baa bah, this is the sound of settling  
Baa bah, baa bah  
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling  
Baa bah, baa bah

Viktor sat in the library, watching Cedric. He paid little attention to the giggling girls behind the bookshelves and even less attention to that brown-haired girl. Helga. Helen. Something. She'd tried talking to him a few times but he brushed her off. Annoyingly, she seemed to think he was being shy and coy.

He ignored her. It didn't really matter, after all. She was just another simpering fangirl. Way too young for him, too.

But Cedric…Cedric was perfect. Cedric was Cedric. Viktor wasn't exactly a poet, but words completely failed to describe Cedric. Cedric was too rough and raw for "beautiful," too pretty to merely be "handsome". Too sinful to be an angel from heaven, too perfect to be an angel from hell. Too muscular for "slim" but not enough to be ripped or buff or any of those.

Cedric was Cedric. Cedric was too perfect for words, except the words that came out of his own mouth, because those words were part of what Cedric was.

Now if only Viktor could even begin to say any of this to Cedric when Cedric came over to talk and try to escape from his own simpering entourage. But all Viktor could do was nod or hand over a book or offer some sympathy. Viktor couldn't think when Cedric was around. Rather, Viktor could think but he couldn't do anything else. After his voice almost cracked the first time he tried talking to Cedric…

Viktor had never been a poet but he wished he was, because Cedric deserved one and Viktor wanted so badly to deserve Cedric. But he'd never ever try. Sometimes Viktor didn't know which thought made him more nervous--the thought that he didn't deserve Cedric, or the thought that he did and was throwing his chances away.

Viktor settled for looking, watching. He knew perfectly well that he was wasting precious time, but what better way to waste it?

**Our youth is fleeting  
Old age is just around the bend  
And I can't wait to go grey **

And I'll sit and wonder  
Of every love that could've been  
If I'd only thought of something charming to say.

**Baa bah, this is the sound of settling  
Baa bah, baa bah  
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling**

But too soon, too soon it was the Ball and Viktor still hadn't asked anyone. Hermione, that was the girl's name, had asked him and he'd said yes. How could he have answered otherwise, cornered in the library like that? It had been one of the few times he'd wished for his giggling shadows. They'd have driven her away. Sadly, he hadn't been able to.

"Hey," came a greeting. Viktor's head snapped up. He knew that voice almost as well as his own. Sure enough, Cedric was meandering through the empty armchairs over to Viktor's couch by the library fire.

"Mind if I sit here?" Cedric asked him with an odd, quirky grin. Viktor shook his head.

"Please," he choked out, motioning Cedric over to the couch.

"So, you have a date for the Ball yet?" Cedric asked a after almost a full minute of awkward silence.

"Yes. Well, no, but yes. I mean, Horatia or something, the one with brown hair cornered me. I had to say yes. She's way too young, though. Like fourteen, I think. But if someone I actually liked ask me, I'd ditch her in a minute," Viktor rushed, stumbling over his words. Cedric looked thoughtful. Did Viktor dare imagine relief, or hope, even?

"Yeah, I know how it can be," Cedric sympathised. "Cho did the same to me. I wouldn't have thought…" he broke off. "So when you say if someone you actually liked asked you, you'd ditch her…?"

"I mean that I'd rather go with the librarian than that girl." Viktor's comment earned him a laugh from Cedric.

"Why didn't you ask someone you liked, then?" Cedric pressed.

"I…I don't know. I guess…I didn't think of it."

"Well, if you really don't like that girl, why don't you ask someone you actually do like, then ditch her?" Cedric continued.

"Because I can't," Viktor said, exasperated. "They're already going to the Ball with someone else."

"What if they're willing to ditch their date for you?" Cedric asked quietly. Viktor looked down and played with the frayed edge of the cushion.

"I just can't. It wouldn't be right."

"Why not?"

"I don't know!" snapped Viktor. "It might be right! I have no idea and I'll never find out."

"Try."

"What?" Viktor stared at Cedric, who stared back.

"Try. Harry asked Cho. She turned him down, so he came to me. I did too. I talked to Cho and she _said_ she was going with me. He knew. _That_ was wrong. He just wants attention. He wants everything. What you want…it's right. You want the same thing the whole time, and it's not to make you look better or because you think you ought to have them. It's because you want _them_. So just ask."

Viktor looked back down at the frayed edge of the cushion.

"Cedric…"

Cedric waited.

"Cedric, I…" Viktor tried again.

"You what, Viktor?" Hermione asked bossily, bursting from the shelves into the little clearing stuffed with chairs. "What's going on?"

She looked from him to Cedric.

"Well, Viktor? Let's go--" she fluttered her eyelashes and leered. "--study."

Cedric looked at him, mutely urging him to stay, to resist.

"I…" Viktor started, but Hermione was already grabbing his arm. He shook her off. "Will you stop? I am not your pet!" he growled. Cedric noticed that Viktor's accent got thicker when he was around girls. His accent also got thicker when he was feeling irritated.

The stupid girl giggled shrilly and tugged his sleeve. "Come on, Viktor! Let's go!"

It was now or never. Viktor saw the message Cedric was sending him perfectly clear. He could go with the girl, or he could stay with Cedric. It was not a mere question of location; it was a question of whether he was going to reach out and take what was offered to him. This was the point of no return.

Hermione dragged him off before he could choose for himself.

**  
Baa bah, baa bah**

**Baa bah, this is the sound of settling  
Baa bah, baa bah**

**Baa bah, this is the sound of settling  
Baa bah, baa bah **

I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots.

Cedric watched Viktor be dragged off by a girl four years younger. Why couldn't Viktor just shove her away for good?

Harry came wandering up and dragged Cedric off. A boy four years younger than Cedric, _dragging_ the older boy.

That was why, Cedric thought wryly.

He knew Viktor wouldn't fault him, would wait. Too much waiting, Cedric decided as the younger boy shoved his mouth inexpertly against Cedric's.

Cedric would find Viktor later.

Viktor would have all the second chances in the world.


End file.
